But only one can make the lineup in dual meets because of the new weight classes approved by the National Federal of State High School Association for this season.

Gone are the 135 and 140-pound weights, essentially replaced by 138. An extra upperweight class (182) was added and 189 was bumped to 195 based on data from the National Wrestling Coaches Association.

"I wrestled off three times with Keenan for 138 and every time, it's close," Cummings said. "Double-entry tournaments help me a lot. There are a lot more kids, who are middleweights than heavyweights and kids need to wrestle to get better."

The numbers support Cummings' notion.

Eighty-nine wrestlers fall in between 135 and 140 pounds in Section 9. Only 48 wrestlers from the section's 28 teams qualified to wrestle at 195 pounds -- a 13-pound gap from 183 -- during certifications in November.

"If you took most of the teams in the section and lined them up in weight-class order, you'd have three little guys, three big guys and the rest of the team in the middle," said Jeff Cuilty, Section 9's wrestling chairman. "In some cases, one of your better wrestlers is sitting in the middle weights and you are looking for a body to wrestle at 195."

The weight-class move isn't popular in Section 9.

Coaches say wrestlers, like Cummings, are missing out on a chance to get some valuable match experience -- while they are left with the task of finding another heavyweight.

"I go out to the football field and watch to see who I can take," said Valley Central coach Jeff Lewis. "It's tough to find a big guy to wrestle."

Some 195-pound wrestlers are new to the sport or lack varsity experience.

Finding additional wrestlers in the upper weights apparently is more than a Section 9 issue.

Only 11 wrestlers entered at 195 at the Mid-Hudson tournament, which had 16 teams and allowed double entries from schools. The tournament included wrestlers from Brookfield, Conn., and West Springfield, Mass.

Dale Pleimann, the chairman of the NFHS wrestling rules committee, said data from almost 200,000 wrestlers across the country was analyzed, "with the goal to create weight classes that have approximately 7 percent of the wrestlers in each weight class."

"That didn't work," Cuilty said. The NWCA "must have had a whole lot of farm boys from the Midwest."

Lewis is among a group of coaches who would like to see wrestling return to its past weights. Michigan is the only state that opted against the change this season.

New York will follow along with the national weights, said Cuilty, a member of the state wrestling committee.

But Cuilty isn't ruling out another change for next season.

"Less kids are getting a chance to wrestle," Cuilty said. "There are more forfeits this year in certain weight classes. You might say, 'How could that be?' It's got to be because of the new weight classes. ... I have a hunch that we will go back to what we had."

Cummings can't control that decision. So, he's just taking his sophomore season in stride. Cummings won four of his six matches and placed third at the Mid-Hudson tournament.

"I just give it my all when I'm out there," Cummings said. "I don't want to lose."

sinterdonato@th-record.com

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